


Attie Jackson and the Lightning Thief

by rocknrollhey



Series: Attie Jackson and the Olympians [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Twins, Canon Era, Canon-Typical Violence, Family, Feminist Themes, Fix-It, Gen, Growing Up, Protective Siblings, Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert, Sibling Love, Wish Fulfillment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 09:15:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25348330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocknrollhey/pseuds/rocknrollhey
Summary: At twelve years old, Attie Jackson's weird life gets weirder. She's attacked by a monster on a field trip, her best friend is keeping secrets from her, and her brother- well, he's always been weird.
Relationships: Grover Underwood & Original Female Character(s), Luke Castellan & Original Female Character(s), Percy Jackson & Original Female Character(s), Sally Jackson (Percy Jackson) & Original Character(s)
Series: Attie Jackson and the Olympians [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1835728
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	1. I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher

Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood. I would give you the whole spiel, but I think you’ve read it before. I’ll skip to the juicy parts for you.

My name is Attie Jackson.

I’m twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.

Am I a troubled kid?

Well, you could say I cause my fair share of trouble.

I’ve gotten better at school recently, but as an elementary schooler I brought terror to every teacher who ever shared a classroom with me. I was an angry kid, alright? Just when I had started to calm down, and actually get the hang of school, things really hit rock bottom. Our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan, headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at the ancient Greek and Roman stuff.

History was actually my favorite subject, but ancient Greece and Rome was not my exact area of expertise. I could ace any test on American history, but stuff that went back into the BC era kinda went over my head.

But Mr. Brunner, our latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.

Mr. Brunner was a good teacher in the sense that he actually cared about his students. That was a rarity in this day and age, especially at the school I went to. He made me actually want to try and learn about old Greek stuff, even if I still thought Roman history was more boring than sitting through a science class.

I hoped this trip would be okay. At least, I didn’t want me or my twin, Percy, to get into trouble.

Me and my brother have a bit of a reputation when it comes to field trips. In kindergarten, we went on a field trip to the zoo, and I got really attached to one of the horses at the petting zoo. When it was time for the class to leave, I got so worked up that I decided to open the gates of the petting zoo and let all the animals free. I got expelled from that kindergarten, and my twin brother followed me to our first grade school. And yes, that did set off my horse girl phase. Another time, in our fifth grade school, we were at the Saratoga battle field, and my brother decided it would be a good idea to mess with a cannon, and he accidentally shot the school bus. He got expelled, and I followed him to Yancy. There’s a story like that at every school we’ve ever been to, but this year, we were determined to be good.

On the school bus ride into the city, I sat in the row across from Percy and our best friend, Grover, who kept getting pelted with a sandwich by some girl near the back row.

Me and Percy didn’t make friends easily, but Grover was one of the few exceptions we both liked enough to hang around. Grover was a really good friend, he had the kinda loyalty that you weren’t supposed to see at a school for juvenile delinquents. He was bullied a lot though, so me and Percy did our best to get all the other kids off his back.

Anyway, this girl was throwing stuff at him, and while it made me mad, I wasn’t gonna do anything about it while the teachers were in sight. Percy, on the other hand, looked like he was about to jump up and clock the girl if she threw any more of her sandwich. If he actually did anything, I would have to go across the aisle of the bus, and pull him back down into his seat. Percy was already on probation, and if anything happened on this trip he would be in trouble for the rest of time. I kept my temper in check this year, but it seemed like I gave Percy my anger issues. The older we got, the calmer I got, but the angrier Percy became.

I heard Grover start to calm Percy down, and realized I could rely on Grover to make sure Percy didn’t deck anyone, at least for the bus ride. I decided that a nap would be the best way to start this field trip, and promptly passed out in my seat.

Looking back on it, I wish I’d gotten up and started a fight with that girl. Detention would have been a dream compared to the nightmare that started the rest of my life.

Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.

He guided us through the galleries of pottery and statues, and I could feel myself getting drawn into his storytelling skills.

He stopped at a stone column with a sphinx on it, and started to talk about how it was actually a grave marker for a girl about my age. A lot of the kids behind us were talking, and I could see Percy getting more and more ticked off by it. He kept trying to get kids to shut up, but Mrs. Dodds, the other chaperone, would glare at him every time like he was the only one talking.

Mrs. Dodds was our substitute math teacher, and she only made my least favorite subject worse. She gave off such bad vibes that I always got nervous around her, and I had jokingly told Grover once that I thought she was a monster, and Grover replied, very seriously, with “How did you figure it out?”

Mrs. Dodds hated me and Percy from the very first day, and decided that some other girl in our class was an angel. I don’t know who, I am really bad with names. I forgot Grover’s and spent the first two months of our friendship calling him Percy’s roommate in my head. Don’t tell him I said that though.

We were still talking about Greece and its funerals.

Eventually, and I could feel the moment Percy snapped, I heard him turn around and say “Will you shut up?”

It was loud in the echoey gallery.

All the kids laughed, and Mr. Brunner stopped his story.

“Mr. Jackson, did you have a comment?”

Percy mumbled, “No sir.”

Pointing to the column, Mr Brunner asked, “Perhaps you’ll tell us what this picture represents?”

Looking at the picture, I knew Percy would know it. Our mother loved Greek mythology, obviously as our full names are Perseus and Atalanta, and all of our bedtime stories growing up were about Greek heroes and gods. Especially the elder gods, as Mom’s and Percy’s favorite god was Poseidon. Those bedtime stories, as long ago as they seemed, held a place in both of our hearts, and instilled my love of history in me.

“That’s Kronos eating his kids, right?” Percy said, like I knew he would.

“Yes, and he did this because…”

“Well… Kronos was the king god, and-”

And I started to feel myself zone out. I knew the myths, I liked learning about them, and this one was of the most basic you could get. Greek history with Plato and Socrates or whoever bored me, and trying to actually decipher The Iliad or The Odyssey gave me a headache, but the actual short myths themselves were wild enough to hold my interest.

“Ms. Jackson, since your brother does not know the answer, would you kindly give your best shot at it?”

I immediately regretted zoning out.

“Um, sorry, but could you repeat the question?” I stuttered, already feeling my face getting hot.

“Why does this Greek myth matter in real life?” Mr. Brunner mercifully said.

My mind started to whirl in the way it always does when I’m about to make up an answer on the spot. I said, “Well, I guess you could say for the same reason any history matters in real life, so you don’t repeat it again. Or you could say it’s important to know so you learn from the Titan’s mistakes because he only got defeated by Zeus because he believed in the prophecy his father gave him, and if he hadn’t worried about the prophecy so much he wouldn’t have swallowed his kids, and then war probably wouldn’t have even happened. So, um, don’t allow fate to control you, I guess?”

Looking at my classmates zoned out eyes, I knew I had gone on some kind of a tangent. But Mr. Brunner’s eyes had a twinkle in them, like I had said something right, so I felt myself relax.

“I’ll take that answer Ms. Jackson. Yes, Kronos did receive a prophecy from his father Ouranos when-”

And I felt myself zone out again.

By the time I zoned back in, my classmates and I were shuffling out of the museum and onto the front steps of the museum to eat lunch. I aimlessly followed Grover and Percy to a fountain farther away from the big crowd of students, and looked overhead to see some pretty nasty looking storm clouds. I liked storms, loved the sound of rain and thunder, but even I was missing sunny days at this point. Ever since Christmas the weather had been weird, freak storms, with floods and wildfires and blizzards like I had never seen before in New York. Sometimes I felt like I was the only one who noticed though.

Grover and Percy talked to each other about something, but I was still pretty unfocused on everything around me. Being back in the city made me want to head back home and see my mom, at least for an afternoon. I thought about me and Percy hopping into a cab and visiting her, but I knew she would send us back to Yancy, and talk to us about trying harder, even though we’d never been to a school for more than a year, and with the way Percy’s record was looking this year I didn’t think we were gonna last much longer. She would look at us real sad, and Percy and I would talk about us getting our acts together until it all repeated again next year.

I was in the middle of picking through my sandwich, when that same girl from earlier came up to us. I’m starting to think I should really learn her name. I didn’t stay on that thought for long though, because as soon as we looked up at her she dumped her half-eaten lunch onto Grover’s lap.

“Oops,” she said, looking not at all apologetic.

I didn’t even have time to get angry before Percy had done something, and made the girl fall into the fountain. She screamed “Percy pushed me!”

Suddenly, Mrs. Dodds appeared oddly gleeful. All the kids around us were whispering, but I was feeling grateful. Looking at our track record, pushing a girl into a fountain didn’t really measure up to shooting a cannonball into a school bus. This wouldn’t even get us expelled.

Mrs. Dodds said “Now, honey-”

Percy interrupted her, “I know, a month erasing workbooks.”

That wasn’t the right thing to say.

“Come with me, and you better too,” she said, looking right at me.

I startled because I really hadn’t done anything and was not expecting to be punished along with Percy when Grover yelped, “Wait, it was me. I pushed her. Attie and Percy had nothing to do-”

“I don’t think so, Mr. Underwood,” she said.

“But-”

“You will stay here.”

Grover looked at the two of us with desperation, and I was touched he had even tried. For all that Mrs. Dodds freaked me out, she scared Grover ten times more.

“It’s okay, man,” Percy said, “thanks for trying.”

“Honeys, now.” Mrs. Dodds barked.

She was already at the front of the museum, and looked very upset that we were not right behind her. It had only felt like a few seconds, but it must have been longer. My brain does that, misinterprets things and falls asleep and makes me zone out a lot. It’s part of the ADHD Percy and I share.

We followed Mrs. Dodds deep into the museum, back to where we were before when Mr. Brunner was lecturing on Greek funerals.

The gallery was empty, except for us, which started to set the alarm bells off in my mind.

“Both of you have been giving us problems,” she said.

Percy and I replied, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Did you really think you would get away with it?”

I didn’t know what she was talking about, me and Percy hadn’t done anything that bad this year, but the look in her eyes made me think I’d done something evil.

Percy sputtered out, “We’ll, we’ll try harder ma’am.”

Thunder shook the building.

“We are not fools, Perseus and Atalanta Jackson. It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain.”

I still didn’t know what she was talking about. From the look on Percy’s face, he didn’t either.

“Well?” she demanded.

“Ma’am, we don’t-”

“Your time is up,” she hissed.

Then the weirdest thing happened. Mrs. Dodds was no longer Mrs. Dodds, but something monstrous. She grew wings, her fingers stretched into talons, her skin turned grey, and her teeth turned into sharp fangs. Her eyes didn’t change though, they still made me feel like I had done something awful and I needed to repent.

Things only got weirder from there.

Mr. Brunner burst through the gallery doors, yelled “What ho!” and threw a pen in the air towards us.

Mrs. Dodds lunged at Percy, and I ran over to catch the ballpoint pen out of the air. Only it wasn’t a pen anymore, it was a sword. A beautiful bronze sword Mr. Brunner used in class sometimes.

I spun back towards Mrs. Dodds and Percy, seeing him continuously trying to dodge what used to be our math teacher. My knees were shaking and it started to get harder to breathe from how bad I was panicking, but there was a vague sense of calm in the back of my mind. Swinging the sword like I had done it a million times before, I raced up to Mrs. Dodds’s back and swung the sword through her shoulder.

She exploded into golden dust, vaporized by the hit, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.

Percy and I were alone in the gallery.

There was a pen in my hand.

Mr. Brunner had vanished.

Looking Percy dead in the eye, I knew I hadn’t imagined it. Unless shared twin hallucinations were a thing, we had really just battled some evil monster in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Percy said, “Do you have any idea what any of that was?”

“Not even a little bit. I don’t suppose you knew what was going on?” I replied.

“Nope.”

Deciding we might as well head back outside in case that thing came back, we walked over to Grover and the still wet girl Percy had pushed into the fountain. When she saw us, she said, “I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped both of your butts.”

I said, “Who?”

“Our teacher. Duh!”

I blinked. As bad as I am with names, I knew the chaperones on this trip were Mr. Brunner and Mrs. Dodds. She just rolled her eyes at my confused expression and turned away.

Percy asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.

He said “Who?” but he hesitated, and he wouldn’t look at Percy or me, so I hoped we were just being messed with.

“Grover, this is serious. Me and Percy are really confused,” I said.

Thunder boomed overhead.

Percy started to drag me away by my arm from Grover and I followed him willingly. He was headed over to Mr. Brunner, and I figured he would give us some answers at least.

“Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Ms. Jackson.”

I handed him the pen, even though something was telling me to keep it.

“Sir,” Percy said, “where’s Mrs. Dodds?”

He stared at the two of us blankly. “Who?”

“The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher.”

He frowned and sat forward, saying “There is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there is no Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Is this some kind of prank you two are trying to pull?”


	2. Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death

I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me and Percy. The students acted completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr- a perky blonde woman I’d never seen in my life until she got on our school bus at the end of the field trip- had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.

Percy kept trying to make people slip up on the joke by springing a Mrs. Dodds reference on them, but they always stared at him like he was crazy.

It got to the point where I almost believed them- Mrs. Dodds never existed, and Percy and I were officially insane.

Almost.

But Grover was just about the worst liar I had ever met. Whenever Mrs. Dodds was brought up, he would always hesitate and then say she didn’t exist. But he couldn’t fool me.

Something was going on, and it was big. Something big happened at that museum.

During the day I didn’t really think about it, but at night all I could picture was Mrs. Dodds lunging at Percy, and her scary eyes that made me want to confess for a sin I hadn’t committed.

The freak storms continued, and with them Percy’s mood decreased drastically. He swore to me that a thunderstorm blew out the windows in his dorm room, and a few days after that, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in the Atlantic that year.

I managed to keep my grades and my mood up, but Percy decided that he would take a page out of second grade Attie’s book and become the terror of the school. We didn’t have all of the same classes, but from what I heard around the school he was quite awful to students and teachers alike. Apparently he even called his English teacher an old sot. I didn’t think he knew what that was.

I saw it coming from a mile away, and eventually our mom got the letter that Percy would not be invited back to Yancy Academy next year. I would follow him to whatever school we went to next, because if Percy and I had to be separated for a whole school year I think we would both lose our minds. Mom says it has to do with being twins, but me and Percy have always been bad about being apart from each other.

As much as Percy acted indifferent towards the expulsion, I knew that he liked Yancy, and would miss it, if only for Grover and Mr. Brunner.

Exams got closer, and Percy and I started to study for Latin together. It was the only class we both cared enough about to actually study for.

Percy and I were studying together on the evening before our Latin final when he got so frustrated he threw his textbook across the room.

“Everything alright over there?” I called from my spot at his desk.

“No, Attie, I just get so mad sometimes when my dyslexia acts up. Why do all of these people’s names have to be so similar?” he whined.

This made me pause. I could sympathize with the ADHD, but Percy was the only one with dyslexia. I could read just fine, thankfully. Slowly, I said, “Why don’t we try and ask Mr. Brunner for some tips on the exam? He should still be in his office, and it’ll give you time to cool off.”

He agreed, and we walked downstairs to Mr. Brunner’s office. When we were almost to the door, I heard Grover from inside the door say “... worried about Percy and Attie, sir.”

Percy and I froze.

We shared a look.

We inched closer.

“...alone this summer,” Grover was saying. “I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-”

“We would only make matters worse by rushing them,” Mr. Brunner said. “They both have to mature more.”

“But what if they don’t have time? The summer solstice deadline-”

“Will have to be resolved without them, Grover. Let them enjoy their ignorance while they are still able.”

“Sir, they both saw her-”

“Their combined imaginations. The Mist over the students and staff will have to convince them of that.”

“Sir, I … I can’t fail in my duties again.” Grover’s voice was choked with emotion. “You know what that would mean.”

“You haven’t failed, Grover,” Mr. Brunner said kindly. “I should have seen her for what she was. Now let’s just worry about keeping Percy and Attie alive until next fall-”

Percy’s mythology textbook slipped out of his hands and made a thud on the floor.

Mr. Brunner went silent.

Percy picked up his book and grabbed my arm, starting to move us back down the dark hallway of offices.

A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Mr. Brunner’s office door, the shadow of something much bigger than my teacher or Grover.

Percy opened the nearest door, and pulled me inside.

A few seconds later there was a clop-clop-clop, the sound of hooves. Then there was a sound of an animal snuffling outside our door, and I had the panicked thought of “Oh my god, there’s a horse loose in my school.”

The shadow looked at the glass of the door, and then moved on.

In the hallway, Mr. Brunner said, “It’s nothing, my nerves haven’t been right since the winter solstice.”

“Mine neither,” Grover said. “But I could have sworn…”

“Go back to the dorm,” Mr. Brunner told him. “You’ve got a long day of exams tomorrow.”

“Don’t remind me.”

The lights went out in Mr. Brunner’s office.

Percy and I waited in the dark, both holding our breath and trying to be as still as possible.

Finally, Percy started to drag me back out into the hallway by my arm, and, after making sure the coast was all clear, escorted me back to the girl’s dorms. It was obvious that the conversation that we eavesdropped on took us both out of a studying mood.

Waving goodbye to Percy, I tried to understand what Grover and Mr. Brunner could have been talking about. It was obvious we were in danger, and they weren’t gonna tell us anything. Combing my memory, I tried to remember why a ‘Kindly One,’ rang a bell. It was from some myth, maybe, I just couldn’t remember what.

Later, after the three hour Latin exam, I had my heart set on going to the library and figuring out what a ‘Kindly One’ was, but Percy burst into my dorm in obvious distress.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing, it’s just that after you left the exam Mr. Brunner thought it would be a good idea to talk about how weird I am and how I was never gonna make it at this school anyway, I mean, what a jerk!

This is what I get for actually trying in a class-”

“Percy,” I said.

His anger popped like a balloon. He threw himself onto my bed, and I could see the sadness and disappointment in his eyes. I got up from my desk, and started to bring my big brother into working order again. I talked about how, yeah, he was kind of a weirdo, but so was I, and we were always gonna be weirdos together. Who cared what some old teacher thought?

And for that afternoon, Kindly Ones and solstices stopped existing while I made sure my twin was alright.

On the last day of term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. My roommate had a couple of friends over, and they were talking about going to Paris and Milan over the summer. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I had never had a daddy, and I had stopped wishing for mine to come back years ago.

They asked me what I’d be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.

What I didn’t tell them about was the inevitable fights with my stepfather, and the inevitable sneaking out to get away from him. I also didn’t mention the summer job walking dogs, or the worrying about what school would take two juvenile delinquents in the fall.

  
"Oh,” one of the girls said. “Cool.”

They went back to their conversation as if I’d never existed.

The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn’t have to. He’d booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as Percy and I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.

The whole bus ride Grover was nervous. He kept scanning the aisle, like someone was just gonna start attacking us on a public bus. He usually did this when we left Yancy, but this seemed more excessive than usual.

I felt Percy lose his patience.

“Looking for Kindly Ones?”

Grover looked like Percy had just punched him in the gut. “Wha-what do you mean?”

I confessed to Grover that me and Percy overheard his conversation with Mr. Brunner the other night.

Grover looked even more panicked. “What exactly did you hear?”

“We didn’t hear a whole lot. What’s the summer solstice deadline?” Percy asked.

Grover winced. “Look, Percy, Attie… I was just worried about you guys. I mean, you both kept going on about demon math teachers…”

“Grover-”

“And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you guys were both sick or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and…”

“Grover, you’re a really, really bad liar,” I said.

His ears turned pink.

From his shirt pocket, he took out an old business card. “Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.”

The card was in fancy script, so I grabbed it because I knew Percy wouldn’t be able to read it. It said:  


Grover Underwood 

Keeper 

Half-Blood Hill 

Long Island, New York 

(800) 009-0009 

“What’s Half-”

“Don’t say it aloud!” he yelped. “That’s my, um… summer address.”

I had never thought about it before, but I guess it made sense that Grover was rich. Almost every kid at Yancy was, he just didn’t act spoiled so it hadn’t crossed my mind.

“Oh,” I said. “So, like, if we want to come visit your mansion.”

He nodded. “Or… or if you need me.”

Percy’s face crinkled in confusion, and he asked “Why would we need you?”

Harsh.

Grover’s blush grew to cover his entire face. “Look, Percy, Attie, the truth is, I- I kind of have to protect you both.”

I stared at him.

Percy had gotten into more fights this year than he ever had before to keep bullies away from Grover, and whenever a catty girl came up to him I made sure she would regret it later. And he was acting like he defended the both of us. Worst comes to worse, and something bad did happen over the summer, me and Percy had each other’s backs. We would be fine without Grover.

“Grover,” Percy said. “What exactly are you protecting us from?”

Under our feet, there was a bad grinding noise. The dashboard of the bus started to expel black smoke, and the smell of rotten eggs took over the bus. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we’d all have to get off. Grover, Percy, and I filed outside like everybody else.

We were on a normal stretch of country road. There were a lot of trees and not much else. Except, on the other side of the highway, there was a fruit stand, with three little ladies sitting there. They had cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, blackberries and watermelon. If they were over on my side of the highway, I probably would have bought something from them. The three ladies were just sitting there, knitting the biggest pair of socks I had ever seen.

The big socks were weird, but what was weirder was how they were looking back between Percy and I. And it was very clearly Percy and I they were looking at, and not just zoning out and staring at someone like I do.

I looked over at Percy and Grover to talk about that, but all the color had drained from Grover’s face.

“Grover?” I said. “Are you alr-”

“Tell me they’re not looking at you. They are, aren’t they?”

“Well, it’s more like looking between me and Percy. Do you think those socks are for us, or what?”

“Not funny, Attie. Not funny at all.”

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors that looked kind of like shears. I heard Grover gasp.

“We’re getting back on the bus,” he said. “Come on.”

“What?” Percy said. “It’s a thousand degrees in there.”

“Come on!” He pried open the door and climbed inside, but Percy and I stayed rooted to our spots.

Across the road, the old ladies were still looking at us. The one on the left was looking at me, the one on the right was looking at Percy, and the one in the middle had her eyes on the yarn in her lap. Then she cut the yarn, and I must have imagined the snip I heard across the highway. The ladies bundled up the socks.

“Hey, do you think those socks are for Bigfoot or Godzilla?” Percy asked, very seriously.

I smiled in spite of myself. Leave it to Percy. “No, you idiot, they were obviously for Mothman.”

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

The passengers cheered.

“Darn right!” yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. “Everybody back on board!”

Once we got going, I started to feel nauseous, and a little feverish too, and one look at Percy’s face told me he felt the same. Grover looked worse, like he was in the middle of a breakdown.

“Grover?” Percy asked.

“Yeah?”

“What are you not telling us?”

“Percy, what did you guys see back at the fruit stand?”

“You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They’re not like...Mrs. Dodds, are they?”

His expression was hard to read, but I had the sinking feeling that whatever those ladies were, they were much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds.

Grover said, “Just tell me what you saw.”

“The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn.”

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might’ve been crossing himself, but it wasn’t. It was something else, something almost- older.

He said, “You saw her snip the cord.”

“Yeah, so?” But even as Percy said that, it was dawning on me that this was a very big deal.

“This is not happening,” Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. “I don’t want this to be like last time.”

“What last time?”

“Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth.”

“Grover,” I said, because he was really starting to freak me out. “What are you talking about?”

“Let me walk you guys home from the bus station. Promise me.”

Things were only getting weirder, but I promised he could.

“Is this like a superstition or something?” Percy asked.

No answer.

“Grover- that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean that somebody is going to die?”

He looked at me and Percy mournfully, like he was already at our funerals.


	3. Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants

When we got to the terminal Percy convinced me to ditch Grover. At first, I didn’t want to do that to Grover, but Grover was really starting to scare Percy. My brother just wanted to get back to our apartment without our friend looking at us like we were already dead.

As soon as we got off the bus, Grover had to go to the bathroom. He made us promise to wait for him, and Percy started trying to get me to leave. I let my brother get our suitcases, lead me outside, and get a taxi uptown.

“East One-hundred-and-fourth and First,” Percy told the driver.

A word about my mother, before you meet her.

Her name is Sally Jackson and she’s the best person in the world. She had a hard life growing up, but that didn’t make her hard or mean. She is the nicest person ever, and she puts up with so much stuff. I’ve never even seen her get angry. She instilled my love for history and stories in me, and passed on her love of the sea to me and Percy. She loves the ocean. It’s the only place she’ll talk about my dad. I don’t remember my dad, but my mom really loved him. Apparently he was rich and important, and he always wanted a daughter. One day, he set out into the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.

Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.

When I was six or seven she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice for the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world class jerk. Percy nicknamed him Smelly Gabe, because the guy wouldn’t know what a shower was if you hit him in the face with one.

Percy and I hate Smelly Gabe and he hates us right back.

Me and Percy walked into our little apartment, hoping our mom would already be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer were strewn all over the carpet.

Hardly looking up from his cigar, he said, “So, you two are home.”

“Where’s our mom?”

“Working,” he said. “Got any cash?”

That was it. No welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?

Gabe had put on weight, but then he always did when I saw him. He was always home for some reason, even though I knew he had a job in Queens. Whenever me and Percy were home, he expected us to fork over any cash we had for him to gamble with. He told me once that it was my ‘living expenses,’ for being under his roof. I told him that my mom paid for the rent, and he punched my lights out.

“I don’t have any cash,” Percy told him.

He raised a greasy eyebrow.

Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising since his own smell should’ve covered up anything else.

“You took a taxi from the bus station. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?”

Eddie looked familiar. I think he was our landlord, but I wasn’t sure.

“Come on, Gabe,” Eddie said. “The kids just got here.”

“Am I right?” Gabe repeated.

Eddie scowled, but didn’t stick up for us anymore. I don’t even think the other two guys were paying attention.

“Fine,” Percy said. He dug out the change from the taxi that was in his pocket and threw it on the poker table. “I hope you lose.”

“Your report card came, brain boy!” he shouted after Percy. “I wouldn’t act so snooty!”

Percy tends to take over the conversation with Gabe when I’m there. He says it’s so Gabe doesn’t focus on me. The only time Gave ever laid a hand on me, Percy found out within minutes of it happening, and Percy managed to have me not be in the same room as Gabe for the rest of that summer. We climbed up the fire escape a lot that summer.

Walking into our bedroom, I crinkled my nose at all of Gabe’s stuff that was there. During the school year, it was Gabe’s study, but I didn’t think he studied. He just liked to move his stuff in here to make me and Percy mad.

Home sweet home.

Gabe’s smell pervaded our room, and I wanted to think it was worse than Mrs. Dodds lunging at my brother, or the sound of that yarn snipping, but I knew that would be a lie. Remembering Grover’s look of panic, I started to regret leaving him at the bus station. Maybe we should have tried to calm him down more to get some answers about this situation.

Then I heard my mom’s voice. “Percy! Attie!”

She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted into oblivion.

My mother could make me feel better about anything, just by being there. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She’s got a few gray streaks in her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it’s like she’s seeing all of the good things, and none of the bad.

“Oh, I can’t believe it!” she said. “You’ve both grown since Christmas!”

She hugged both of us tight.

She had a bag of candy in her hand, like she always did when me and Percy came home. It was free samples from her job at the sweets store in Grand Central. Percy started to attack the blueberry sour strings, and I took down the chocolate. We all sat on Percy’s bed, talking about Yancy and how we were doing.

Percy kept telling her to lay off, and that we were too old for this, but he was pleased by the attention. And Mom knew that he didn’t actually mean anything he said.

From the other room, Gabe yelled, “Hey, Sally- how about some bean dip, huh?”

I felt my eyes roll into the back of my head.

My mom is the best person on the planet. She should have people making her bean dip when she wants some, not have to make it for the grossest guy in Manhattan.

For her sake, Percy and I made Yancy seem pretty good. We had both made a friend. Latin class was fun. The other kids didn’t bother us that much. I got emotional at the end there, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner, and the view outside my dorm window on clear mornings. Until we got to the museum field trip…

“What?” my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out secrets. “Did something happen?”

Percy said, “No, Mom.”

I was glad Percy was taking the lead in this conversation. There were two people I could never lie to, and it was my mom and Percy. Mom because I felt bad, and Percy because he always could tell when I tried to lie to him, so now I didn’t even bother.

I could tell Percy hadn’t convinced her, but she didn’t push.

“I have a surprise for you guys,” she said. “We’re going to Montauk. I booked three nights at the same cabin.”

“When?”

She smiled. “As soon as I get changed.”

I couldn’t believe it. We hadn’t gone on a family trip in two years, because Gabe always said there wasn’t enough money.

Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, “Bean dip, Sally? Didn’t you hear me?”

I took a deep breath, and shared a look with Percy. We would put up with Gabe for just a little bit more, and then we could bounce.

“I was on my way, honey,” she told Gabe. “We were just talking about the trip.”

Gabe’s eyes got small. “The trip? You mean you were serious about that?”

“I knew it,” Percy muttered. “He won’t let us go.”

“Of course he will,” my mom said evenly. “Your stepfather is just worried about money. That’s all. Besides,” she added, “Gabriel won’t have to settle for bean dip. I’ll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works.”

Gabe softened a bit. “So this money for your trip… it comes out of your clothes budget, right?”

“Yes, honey,” my mother said.

“And you won’t take my car anywhere but there and back.”

“We’ll be very careful.”

“Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip… And maybe if the kids apologize for interrupting my poker game.”

Maybe if I break your nose, I thought.

But my mom’s eyes pleaded with me not to make him mad.

I wanted to scream. Who cares about this guy? Why do you put up with him, Mom?

“I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I’m really sorry for interrupting your incredibly important poker game.”

“I’m sorry too,” Percy said. “Please go back to it right now.”

Gabe’s eyes narrowed. He was probably trying to detect sarcasm.

“Yeah, whatever,” he decided.

He went back to his game.

“Thank you,” my mom said. “Once we get to Montauk, we’ll talk more about… whatever we have to talk about, okay?”

For a second, she looked really anxious, like she felt the odd chill in the air I’d been feeling since those ladies snipped the chord.

But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.

An hour later we were ready to leave.

Gabe took a break from his poker game to watch me and Percy lug all of our luggage into the car. He was complaining about us taking his car.

“Not a scratch on this car,” he warned. “Not one little scratch.”

Like either of us would be driving. We’re twelve. But Gabe didn’t care. He would find some way to blame us.

As I put the last bag in the trunk, I saw Percy do something weird. He made the same hand signal Grover made on the bus, a sort of claw-motion over your heart, then shoving your hand forward. Percy pushed his hand out toward Gabe, and the door Gabe was standing in hit him so hard it sent him flying up the staircase as if he’d been shot by a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or maybe Percy had weird superpowers we hadn’t figured out yet, but we didn’t stay long enough to find out. I pulled Percy into the car and told Mom to step on it.

Our rental cabin was on the South shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a pastel yellow box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and bugs in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

It was the best place ever.

We’d been going there since Percy and I were babies. Mom had been going even longer. It was also the place she met my dad.

As we got closer to the cabin, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned to the color of the sea, like mine and Percy’s.

We got there right as the sun was going down. We went through the usual cleaning routine, and then walked on the beach and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and some chocolates she saved special for me.

I guess I should explain the blue food.

Gabe and my mom argued once about whether there was such a thing. It wasn’t even that big of a fight, but all three of us refused to let it go. Ever since, Mom made blue birthday cakes, mixed blueberry smoothies, bought blue corn tortilla chips, and brought home blue candy from the shop. This was her one rebellion that she allowed herself, along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, instead of being Mrs. Ugliano.

There's no story for the chocolates, I just like chocolate.

When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and made s’mores. Mom’s eyes softened. She always said the same things, but I still liked hearing them.

“He was kind,” she said. “Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You both look so much like him.”

She fished a blue jelly bean out of the candy bag. “I wish he could see you both. He would be so proud.”

Anywhere else in the world, I would have said something about not caring about the guy who left us, or about how I didn’t care what he would think of me. But Montauk was special. I could let myself think about my dad here, if nowhere else.

“How old were we?” Percy asked. “I mean, when he left?”

She watched the flames. “He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin.”

“But… he knew us when we were babies,” Percy said.

I raised an eyebrow. I didn’t remember Dad at all.

“No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw either of you. He left before you were born,” Mom said.

I was mad at my dad. It was a little stupid, but I resented him for leaving, and letting my mom marry Smelly Gabe, and letting a scumbag raise me and Percy.

“Are you going to send us away again?” I changed the subject. “To another boarding school?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart.” Her voice was heavy. “I think… I think we’ll have to do something.”

“Because you don’t want us around?” I regretted the words as soon as they came out.

Mom’s eyes started to leak. She pulled me into a hug, and squeezed me tight. “Oh, Attie, no. I- I have to, sweetheart. For your own good. I have to send you away.”

“Because we’re not normal,” Percy said.

Mom turned away from me to look at him too. “You say that as if it’s a bad thing, Percy. But you don’t realize how important you are. You both are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you’d finally be safe.”

“Safe from what?”

Even as Percy asked the question, I knew from what. All the weird, unexplained things that ever happened to us.

In third grade, during recess, a man in a black trench coat stalked me and Percy through the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he left, but the thing that sticks out the most from that memory is that I could’ve sworn the man only had one eye.

There’s a story like that for every school we’ve ever gone to, including, most recently, Mrs. Dodds.

I suddenly really wanted to tell Mom everything about the museum, and the old ladies, and Grover freaking out, but I couldn’t spit the words out. I felt like if I said them, life would change, drastically, and I didn’t really want that.

“I’ve tried to keep you both as close as I could. It was a risk even keeping you together,” my mom said. “They told me that was a mistake. But there’s only one other option, the place that your father wanted to send you both. And I just… I just can’t stand to do it.”

“Dad had a school picked out for us?”

“Not a school,” she said softly. “A summer camp.”

That didn’t make any sense. Why would a guy who left before we were born talk about a summer camp to my mom?

“I’m sorry,” she said. “But I can’t talk about it. I couldn’t send you to that place. It might mean saying goodbye for good.”

Percy said, “For good? But if it’s only a summer camp…”

This was starting to sound like a cult. Was my dad in a cult?

Mom turned towards the fire, and I knew if we kept asking her questions she would start to cry.

I awoke with a thunder clap. I looked around, confused for a second, until the next thunderclap, when my mom woke up. Eyes wide, she said, “Hurricane.”

I knew that was crazy. Long Island never got hurricanes this early in the summer, but it seems like somebody forgot to tell the ocean that. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant sound that could have been someone yelling in pain.

Then, a closer noise, someone pounding on the door.

My mother sprang out of bed and threw open the lock.

To my surprise, it was Grover, except it also wasn’t exactly Grover.

“Searching all night,” he gasped. “What were you two thinking?”

My mother looked at us both in terror, not scared of Grover, but of why he’d come.

Shouting over the rain and wind, she said, “What happened at school? What aren’t you telling me?”

I cracked. I told her every weird thing that happened to me and Percy this year, from Mrs. Dodds to everyone forgetting about Mrs. Dodds to the fruit stand ladies and their snip.

She grabbed her purse, tossed me and Percy our rain jackets, and said, “Get in the car. All of you. Go!”

Grover ran for Gabe’s car, but he wasn’t exactly running. He was trotting, like a horse, shaking his shaggy hindquarters. Grover didn’t have feet. He had hooves.


	4. I Get Zapped Out of Commission

My mother was driving through the night faster than she had ever dared with me or Percy in the car. The storm was getting worse, and I was starting to have real concerns about us crashing into a tree or something. I couldn’t see anything out the windshield.

I would be more concerned if my brain wasn’t stuck on Grover’s legs. Whenever lightning would light up the car, I would turn around to look in the backseat and at Grover. Satyr, half-man, half-goat. Grover was some kind of satyr.

“So, you and my mom know each other?” Percy asked.

Not my first question, Percy, but a fair one.

“Not exactly,” Grover said. “I mean, we’ve never met in person. But she knew I was watching you guys.”

“Watching us?”

“Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn’t faking being your friend,” Grover added, looking between me and Percy. “I am your friend.”

“Um…. what are you exactly?” Percy said.

“That doesn’t matter right now.” Grover said.

I frowned, and said, “He’s a satyr, or something. Like from the myths.”

“Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Attie? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?” Grover asked, irritated.

“So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!” Percy said.

“Of course.”

“Then why-”

“The less you knew the fewer monsters you’d attract,” Grover said, like we should already know this. “We put Mist over the humans’ eyes. We’d hoped you’d think the Kindly One was some kind of hallucination. But it was no good. You guys are realizing who you are.”

“Who we- wait a minute, what do you mean?”

The weird noises started up again, much closer than last time. Whatever was behind us was gaining.

“Kids,” my mom said, “there’s too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety.”

“Safety from what? Who’s after us?”

“Oh, nobody much,” Grover said, “just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions.”

“Grover!”

“Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?”

I tried to make myself calm down. Think through the situation logically. But it wasn’t working. All I could think about was the roar of the rain surrounding us and the evil eyes of Mrs. Dodds.

My mom made a hard left, snapping out of that flashback. We were off the highway and onto a country road.

“Where are we going?” Percy asked.

“The summer camp I told you about.” Mom’s voice was tight, the same way mine would get when I was about to start crying. “The place your father wanted to send you.”

“The place you didn’t want us to go.”

“Please, dear,” my mother begged. “This is hard enough. Try to understand. You’re both in danger.”

“Because some old ladies cut yarn,” Percy grumbled.

“Those weren’t old ladies,” Grover said. “Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means- the fact that they appeared in front of you two? They only do that when you’re about to… when someone’s about to die.”

“Whoa, you said ‘you,’” I said, starting to panic even more.

“No I didn’t. I said ‘someone.’”

“You meant ‘you.’ As in one of us.”

“I meant you, like ‘someone.’ Not you, you.”

“Kids!” my mom said.

She made a hard right, and I finally saw out the back windshield the figure of what was chasing us. I only saw a silhouette of something huge until it became another dark misty blob in the stormy night.

“What was that?” I asked.

“We’re almost there,” my mother said, ignoring the question. “Another mile. Please. Please. Please.”

I didn’t know where we were going, but I wanted to be there more than anywhere in the world right now. I wished Percy would ask another question, or Grover would start explaining things, so I could not be stuck in my own head for a few seconds. All I could think about was Mrs. Dodds. We were in actual danger then, she’d meant to kill Percy and I. If Mr. Brunner hadn’t come in with that sword-pen we would be dead.

I wanted to ask Grover about that, but suddenly there was a blinding flash, a loud crack of thunder, and the car started to flip. My head hit the dashboard, and I knew no more.

I dreamt of nothing concrete. Just a series of images. Flashes of other people. A tall man, with black hair and green eyes that stared straight through me, fishing off the side of a pier. A blond teenager fighting some kind of dragon, and getting a claw to the face for his efforts. A different blond boy, maybe a little younger than me, getting a line burned into his arm. A boy with dark black hair and some cards in his hands, looking up at me and asking if I wanted to play with him. A brown-haired kid, walking quickly through a sewer, with a fireball lighting up his hand. Percy tearing the horn off of a huge, hulking creature. And finally, someone who I knew was me, just older, standing in the middle of a hurricane. I was controlling a hurricane.

I think I drifted in and out of sleep, but by the time I woke up and felt like I was going to stay awake, I felt pretty awful. My head throbbed, and my vision wasn’t the best. I couldn’t tell exactly where I was, but I wasn’t able to think clearly enough to freak out about it. I started to try to push myself up when someone pushed me back onto the bed I was laying on and shoved something in my mouth. It tasted like Mom’s cookies, somehow. Maybe she was here and making cookies.

“None of that now,” said a boy. “You have a concussion, and you’re not gonna leave the infirmary until I’m sure you’re not gonna collapse on your way to the Hermes cabin.”

“What?” I croaked.

I was already starting to feel better. My vision cleared up, and I could see the blond high schooler in front of me. His face was no nonsense, like he was used to people trying to leave the infirmary before he cleared them.

“You got a concussion. You’ve been out for about two days. Your brother was here too, but he left about an hour ago. You should be able to see him by tonight.”

That made me feel better and worse at the same time.

“Okay, and...who are you?” I asked.

He smiled, and said, “Lee Fletcher. I’m the counselor for the Apollo cabin. I’m the best medic in camp so I’m here to make sure you don’t have any brain damage.”

He started to ask me a bunch of questions, like what year it was and who my family was. He kept feeding me more of what I thought was my mom’s cookies, but was actually some kind of pastry that really tasted like blue chocolate chip cookies.

“Do you remember what you were doing right before you woke up here?”

“Uh, I was in a car, and we were driving away from something. We had to make it somewhere safe, but no one would tell me where.”

“Well, you did make it. You’re at Camp Half-Blood, the safest place in the world for people like us.”

“What do you mean ‘people like us?’”

He sighed, like he’d already explained this to a lot of kids, and said, “You’ve led a weird life, right? Seen and done things you can’t explain. The reason for that is because of your dad. He wasn’t a human, he was a god. A Greek God, to be specific.”

“What?”

“You’ll see while you’re here. This is a camp for the children of the Greek Gods. Outside of camp, monsters will hunt you down and kill you. A couple have already tried. You talk in your sleep, did you know? It’s impressive that you took down a Kindly One with no training. Anyway, eventually your dad will claim you and you’ll know who your dad is and what your powers could be. You’ll learn how to defend yourself here, and you’ll make the best friends of your life. You’ll even probably get some new siblings.”

I knew if I was thinking more clearly I would be panicking about the ramifications of all of this, but my head still hurt pretty bad and I figured I could panic later. Lee fluttered around the infirmary, cleaning up and keeping a steady stream of conversation with me. He answered most of my questions, about what we did at camp and where I would be staying, but when I asked about my mom he frowned and looked at me sympathetically. He said it would be best if I asked my brother or Chiron what happened that night. That led to a new round of questioning about if he meant, like, the Chiron from the myths and he laughed and said that yes, Chiron was immortal, and he ran the camp along with Mr. D.

“Who’s Mr. D?” I asked

“Dionysus, but names have power, and I would avoid calling out deities directly. Just try not to offend him when you meet him. You’ll see him at the campfire tonight but you’re still looking pretty pale over there. Do you think you need to stay here overnight?”

I only had a headache, so I told him I was probably fine to leave.

“Okay, but if you start to feel dizzy or nauseous or if your headache starts to get really bad then you need to come back here or find me. Promise?”

“Promise,” I said.

Lee let me get out of the bed and led me out of what he called the Big House and through what would be a normal summer camp, except for the satyrs walking around and a climbing wall that looked like it was spewing lava. And also the weird cabins in a semicircle, that ranged from an old Greek temple to a steampunk paradise. Lee pointed out his cabin to me (the one that was glowing gold, hard to miss) and said that’s where I should go if I needed medical help because he or one of his siblings would help me. When we arrived at the Hermes cabin, the only normal cabin of them all, he opened the door and announced, “This is Attie Jackson, everybody. Be nice to her or I’ll use you for target practice. She has a concussion and if one of you makes it worse in any way I’m coming after you.”

That was very sweet of him, but from the scowls and grins coming my way I wished he had let me make my own rep. The best way to show you weren’t to be messed with was not having an older guy following you and threatening what looked like a room of at least twenty people.

“Regular or undetermined?” somebody asked.

I didn’t know what that meant, but a different guy answered for me. “Undetermined, we literally just met her twin brother like an hour ago. Hey, Attie, your spot will be over there, your brother will be right next to you.”

The one speaking was another older blond boy, but college age this time. He looked like a surfer, and he would’ve looked like the nicest guy in the cabin if not for the wicked scar on his face.

“This is Luke,” Lee said, “He’ll be your counselor. He’ll make sure you don’t get hazed until your concussion is all healed up.”

“How kind,” I said.

I would’ve put my stuff down in my spot among the sea of sleeping bags, but I had no stuff. And that seemed like a good thing from the look in some of the kid’s eyes. A rich kid from Yancy would not last long in this cabin.

Lee left after giving one final death stare to the whole cabin, and I just kind of awkwardly walked to my spot. I kind of wanted to try and find Percy, but the camp seemed so big I knew I would get lost.  
I made eye contact with Luke from across the cabin, and he walked closer to me and asked, “Did Lee give you a full tour of camp?”

“No, he just walked me here from the uh, Big House?”

“I’ll give you a tour then. Our cabin already finished our activities for the day so I don’t have anything else to do. We’ll get some stuff from the camp store for you and your brother too, okay?”

I nodded, and Luke led me out of the Hermes cabin and showed me around Camp Half-Blood. I knew I would get lost if I was by myself, this place was huge. Other than the cabins and the Big House, there were strawberry fields, a lake, an arena, an archery range, a forge, an arts-and-crafts room, an amphitheater, the climbing wall I saw earlier, and the forest surrounding camp that was apparently full of monsters. Luke told me there was lots of more cool stuff in camp, but that it wouldn’t be any fun if he just showed me where it was. He had found them all himself, so I would have to find where the stuff was on my own. I told him I didn’t think I could make it back to the Hermes cabin without him guiding me at this point.

Whenever we passed by other kids, they would stop what they were doing and stare. I heard lots of mutters about bathrooms and bulls.

We made it to the camp store eventually, and Luke told me to wait outside for him. After a couple of minutes, he ran back outside and grabbed me while sprinting back to the cabins.

“Damn you Hermes spawn! Get back here!” screamed a woman who looked kinda like a chicken.

“What the heck, man?” I yelled at Luke.

“Come on Attie, did you think I was actually gonna pay for this stuff?” he yelled back.

We made it back to the Hermes cabin eventually, after hiding from what Luke told me were called Harpies for about half an hour. Looking at my spot on the floor, I saw someone familiar after hours of pure weirdness. Percy was there, and I knew he was as relieved to see me as I was to see him.

Rushing over to him, I hugged him and asked, “Are you actually believing any of this stuff?”

He sighed and said, “Not even a little bit.”

Luke followed me to the back of the cabin at a much slower pace.

“Hey, got you both sleeping bags, and I stole you some toiletries from the camp store.”

Percy said, “Thanks.”

“No prob.” Luke sat down next to us, pushed his back against the wall. Looking at Percy’s tired face, he said, “Tough first day?”

“We don’t belong here,” Percy started. “We don’t believe in gods.”

“Yeah,” Luke said. “That’s how they all start. It doesn’t get any easier once you start believing in them.”

His tone was such a change from the Luke I’d been hanging out with for that it threw me off. He sounded angry and bitter. When we were just walking around camp he seemed so carefree.

“So your dad is Hermes?” Percy asked, changing the subject.

Luke pulled a switchblade out of his pocket, but instead of gutting my brother like a fish he just scraped the mud off the soles of his sandals. “Yeah. Hermes.”

I winced. By changing the subject Percy managed to pick what seemed like an even worse one. Luke’s blue eyes had gone icy, and I figured that everybody in camp had daddy issues. I figured it was a good subject to avoid, especially around Luke.

My brother didn’t get the memo.

“The wing-footed messenger guy?”

“That’s him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers. Merchants. Thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That’s why you guys are here, enjoying cabin eleven’s hospitality. Hermes isn’t picky about who he sponsors.”

Ouch. That one kind of hurt.

“You ever meet your dad?”

“Once.”

Luke looked up and seemed to realize he was talking to two scared twelve year olds. He managed a smile. “Don’t worry about it. The campers here, they’re mostly good people. After all, we’re all extended family, right? We take care of each other.”

I decided that I didn’t care if Luke was angry or bitter about his dad, he was still one of the nicest people I’d ever met. He could’ve just ignored me when I was sitting at the back of the cabin, but he didn’t. For a girl who’s whole life had just gone topsy-turvy that meant a lot. Besides, if my dad didn’t come down and explain some things to me soon I was going to be pretty angry too.

“Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being ‘Big Three’ material. Then Annabeth...twice she said I might be ‘the one.’ She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?” Percy asked.

Well, all of that meant nothing to me. I’d have to interrogate Percy later.

Luke folded his knife. “I hate prophecies.”

“What do you mean?”

His face twitched. “Let’s just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn’t allowed any quests. Annabeth’s been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally he told her he already knew her fate. He’d had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn’t tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn’t destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until...somebody special else came to camp.”

“Somebody special?” I asked.

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Luke said. “Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she’s been waiting for. Trust me, as soon as she talks to Attie here, she’ll think you’re ‘the one.’ Now, come on, it’s dinnertime.”

As soon as he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell.

Luke yelled, “Eleven, fall in!”

The whole cabin lined up in single file, and me and Percy were at the back. As we were walking I asked Percy the question that no one was willing to answer for me.

“Perce, no one will tell me what happened to Mom. I don’t remember anything after I hit my head.”

He looked at me, and I knew. Mom was gone. Percy couldn’t fake the grief in his eyes as soon as I mentioned her. Whether it was the crash that gave me a concussion, or the monster that was following us, something had killed my mother. My blood ran cold, and I felt tears well up in my eyes. After learning about gods and demigods all day, this was still the biggest shock of them all. I couldn’t imagine a world without Sally Jackson.

Percy’s eyes widened when he saw me start to sniffle, and he whispered, “I know, Attie, and I’m so sorry. The Minotaur was chasing us and it got her but, but if all these Greek stories are true, then the Underworld is real, right? We just have to get out of this camp and go get her. We’ll find her. There’s tons of stories about heroes getting people from the Underworld. We’ll just have to do it too. She’s not gone.”

I nodded, and tried to calm myself down. No one was looking at the crying girl yet, but they could be soon. I made myself think about all the myths of people bringing back the dead. I could think of at least Hercules, maybe, who was successful, but I knew there were a couple of other ones too. I would have to brush up on my myths before we left camp. It was probably a good idea to read all the Greek Epics anyway, since apparently the monsters from those were still roaming around. I breathed deeply while thinking about finding copies of The Iliad and The Odyssey to start. We were in a Greek camp, they shouldn’t be hard to find.

I focused again when I heard Mr. Brunner’s voice yell, “To the gods!”

I looked up at the voice. Mr. Brunner was apparently a horse. I wish I could say that was the weirdest thing that happened to me today. Grover kind of stole his thunder on the farm animal surprise.

Speaking of Grover, he was sitting at a table with some other satyrs. I waved. His face lit up and he knocked someone’s drink over when he tried to wave back. Laughing into my hand, I smiled so big it hurt my cheeks. I could always count on Grover to cheer me up. I’m glad he made it out alright from the other night.

Luke explained to us about asking for whatever drinks we wanted from the cups. Percy and I shared a smile and got matching blue drinks. For Mom, I toasted. She’s not gone. Percy and I just have to go get her.

Everyone got up after getting their food, and Luke told us about sacrificing the best part of our food to the gods.

After seeing my expression, he leaned down and murmured in my ear, “They like the smell.”

“You’re joking.”

His look told me this was no joking matter. From what I gathered, it seemed these gods weren’t big fans of jokes.

Luke walked up to the fire, and said, “Hermes.”

Walking up to it, I threw in some fresh bread and thought Tell me who you are, please.

When everybody sat down and finished eating, a black-haired guy got up from the table where Grover was sitting, but I knew instantly this man was no satyr, and definitely not a demigod. Looking into his bright purple eyes, I felt madness, and saw people turning into dolphins, and women ripping a man to shreds with their bare hands, then going off and dancing with blood staining their clothes.

This man was a god. Gulping, I thought, Hello, Dionysus.

He started his speech with “Yes I suppose I’d better say hello to all of you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels. Personally, I couldn’t care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have two new campers today, Peter and Allie Johnson.”

Mr. Brunner, who was apparently not just a centaur but an immortal trainer of heroes for millennia, murmured something to Mr. D.

“Er, Percy and Attie Jackson,” Mr. D corrected. “That’s right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly little campfire. Go on.”

Everybody cheered. I followed the crowd to the amphitheater, where the Apollo cabin led a sing-along. Lee waved at me from where he was on the stage. We sang dumb songs and ate s’mores, and I felt like I this place could be home.


	5. We Capture a Flag

I was starting to love camp. After getting over the whole ‘Greek Gods are real,’ thing, Camp Half-Blood seemed almost like a normal summer camp, minus all the mythical creatures roaming around. 

Luke’s friend Annabeth was teaching Percy and I Ancient Greek. Apparently she helped Lee nurse us back to health, and she was the one who showed Percy around. She was pretty cool, if a little intense and intimidating. She even gave me a copy of The Iliad, so I could start my mission on learning about the history of my new family. 

Percy and I kept cycling through activities trying to find something we were good at. Our archery skills were awful, we weren’t the best racers around, and Percy had already made an enemy of this girl from the Ares cabin, and whenever either of us tried to wrestle she would take us down easily. We were unbeatable at the canoe races though, but that wasn’t exactly impressive. 

All the older campers were trying to guess who our dad was, but there were no clear signs yet. Luke told me we could be Hermes kids, because we were average at most things. I would like to be a child of Hermes, I wouldn’t mind having more siblings, but I had my own theory on who our dad was. I knew Percy had no clue, and I wasn’t going to tell him in case I was wrong, but it seemed obvious to me that Mom had known what our dad was. And her favorite god had always been a certain god of the seas. 

I was distracted during the day, but at night my thoughts always went back to Mom. Percy and I were waiting for our shot to go and save her. We had to get her back. We just had to.

Thursday afternoon, three days after getting to camp, I had my first sword fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven was in the arena, and Luke would be our instructor. 

I decided swords were the best weapon I had tried so far. Meaning, I wasn’t as awful with them as I was with daggers or a bow and arrow. Luke said I would be better if I had a balanced sword, but none of the ones in the armory fit me right. They were either too heavy or too light, but I wasn’t fighting my best with them. Eventually I could go get one made for me from the Hephaestus cabin, but that would take a little bit, so I just grabbed one that worked alright.

We moved on to dueling in pairs, but Percy was still mad at me from yesterday day when I flipped our canoe into the lake, so he got some other kid to practice with him. Which left me with Luke, which would be fine if Luke wasn’t a lot older than me and taller than me and also, as one camper told me, the best sword fighter in three hundred years. 

Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks, and he wasn’t nice about it. He hit hard. My bruises had bruises. “Keep your guard up, Attie,” he’d say, and then hit me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. 

By the time he called for a break, I was soaked in sweat, and it kind of hurt to move. I dreaded how sore I would be tomorrow. Luke poured ice water over his head, which seemed like a great idea so I did the same. 

I suddenly wasn’t that sore. In fact, I felt very energetic. The sword wasn’t as awkward as it had been. 

“Okay, everybody, circle up!” Luke ordered. “If Attie doesn’t mind, I want to give you a little demo.”

Fantastic, I thought. Let’s watch a nineteen year old beat up a twelve year old.

The Hermes kids gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they’d all been in my shoes before and this was a kind of hazing. I was going to get Percy back for this, I swore in my mind. 

Luke said he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy’s blade with the flat of your sword so that they had no choice but to drop the weapon. He demonstrated on me and my sword in slow motion.

“Now in real time,” he said, after I’d picked up my sword. “Remember, Attie, this is a really hard technique. It can take years to master. Don’t feel down if you can’t do it perfectly. We’ll keep sparring until one of us manages to pull it off. Ready?”

Two minutes ago I would have had no shot against Luke, but the water had helped. I nodded, and Luke came after me. Suddenly, I was better at sword fighting. My senses opened up, and when I swung my sword at him I felt like I had been sword fighting for years and not just an afternoon. He seemed to realize something changed, and he started to take this fight a little more seriously. 

I ran out of steam quickly, and my sword felt awkward in my hand. I knew he was gonna take me down any second, so I figured, what the heck?

I tried the disarming maneuver. 

My blade hit the base of Luke’s and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust. 

Luke’s sword hit the ground. The tip of my sword was an inch from his undefended chest. 

The other campers were silent, but I could feel their burning eyes on my back.

I lowered my sword, and gulped, “Um, sorry.”

Luke looked frozen in time. He didn’t change his expression for a beat.

Then his face lit up, and he said, “Sorry? By the gods, Attie, why are you sorry? Show me that again!”

I didn’t want to. My energy faded, and I didn’t want to be like, Okay Luke, but only if you let me go dump another water bottle on my head. But he insisted.

This time there was no contest. Luke got my sword on the ground in the first five seconds.

Somebody in the audience said, “Beginner’s luck?”

Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He looked me up and down, and I just knew I was going to be his new partner for every sword fighting class he taught. “Maybe,” he said, “But we’re gonna get you a balanced sword and we’ll see what you can really do.”

Friday afternoon, I was hanging out with Grover and Percy. It had been decided that the Jackson siblings did not like the climbing wall. We were both firmly anti-lava. Grover was really good at it though, like a true mountain goat. 

Luke had asked if I wanted to work some more on sword fighting, but I told him that I hadn’t gotten to spend time with Grover all week so I was going to chill with him. I had also gained a healthy fear of him with a sword. I was still really sore from yesterday.

Anyway, we were sitting on the pier, just vibing, until Percy asked Grover about what happened with Mr. D.

Percy and I had filled each other in on our first days at camp, and he told me when Percy met our resident god he had left Grover with him to have a conversation about Grover’s future.

Grover paled.

“Fine,” he said. “Just great.”

“So your career’s still on track?”

His eyes shifted nervously. “Chiron told you I want a searcher’s license?”

“Well… no. He just said you had big plans, you know… and that you needed credit for completing a keeper’s assignment. So did you get it?”

Grover shrugged. “Mr. D suspended judgement. He said I hadn’t failed or succeeded with you guys yet, so our fates are still tied together. If one of you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he’d consider the job complete.”

Percy said, “Well, that’s not so bad, right?”

Grover bleated. “He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of either of you getting a quest… and even if you did, why would you want me along?” 

“Grover, you’re our best friend. Of course we’d want you on a quest with us,” I said.

Percy nodded in agreement.

That didn’t raise Grover’s spirits. Percy and I shared a look. We decided it would be best to change the subject.

We talked about the activities at camp and how we were settling in, and then we talked about all the different gods, and who our dad could be.

“So, uh, what’s with all the empty cabins?” Percy asked.

“Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis,” Grover said. “She vowed to be a maiden forever. So, of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn’t have one she’d be mad. Plus she has this group of young girls called the hunters that follow her, and they stay there sometimes.”

“Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the big three?”

The question made sense. In all of Greek myth, there were Zeus and Poseidon’s kids wandering around. It didn’t make sense for them to be celibate now.

“No. One of them, number two, is Hera’s,” Grover said. “That’s another honorary thing. She’s the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn’t go around having affairs with mortals. That’s her husband’s job. When we say Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos.”

“Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.”

“Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what.”

“Zeus got the sky, Poseidon got the sea, and Hades got the Underworld.”

“Uh-huh,” Grover said.

“But Hades doesn’t have a cabin here,” I said.

“No. He doesn’t have a throne on Olympus either. He sort of does his own thing in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here…” Grover grimaced. “Well, it wouldn’t be pleasant. Let’s leave it at that.”

“But why don’t Zeus and Poseidon have kids? Wasn’t that kind of their thing?” I asked.

It seemed we kept picking subjects that made Grover more and more uncomfortable. He said, “About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn’t sire any more heroes. Their kids were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events, causing too much carnage. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades all swore an oath: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx.”

Thunder boomed.

Percy said, “That’s the most serious oath you can make.”

Grover nodded. 

“And the brothers kept their word, no kids?” Percy asked.

Grover’s face darkened. “Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the band wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo- he just couldn’t help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia… well the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he’s immortal, but he brought a terrible fate upon his daughter.”

“But that isn’t fair! It wasn’t the little girl’s fault,” Percy said.

Grover hesitated. “Percy, Attie, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn’t happy. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her with a couple of the other half-bloods she’d befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill.”

He pointed to the tallest hill in the valley, where there was a really tall pine tree. “All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a hoard of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn’t want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn’t want to leave her, but he couldn’t change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That’s why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill.”

Grover’s story made me feel like someone punched me in the gut. Thalia seemed so brave, and I didn’t know if I was up to the challenge of being a demigod. Plus, if I was right about who our dad was, then Percy and I would be hunted down just as vigorously as she was. I suddenly desperately hoped that the god of the sea was not our dad. I didn’t want to be hunted like an animal if I ever left camp.

“Grover,” Percy said, breaking my train of thought, “have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?”

“Sometimes,” he said. “Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini.”

“Houdini was a demigod?” I shrieked.

Grover let out a little laugh, and said, “It’s actually a funny story, you see-”

“Did any of them ever actually return somebody from the dead?” Percy interrupted.

“No. Never. Orpheus came close… Percy, you’re not seriously thinking-”

“No,” Percy said. What a liar. “I was just wondering. So… a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?”

Grover was unconvinced. He looked wary and unimpressed. “Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out half-bloods. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems.”

“And you found us. Chiron said you thought we could be something special,” Percy said.

Grover looked panicked. “I didn’t… Oh, listen, don’t think like that. If you were, you know, you’d never be allowed on a quest, and I’d never get my license. You’re probably children of Hermes. Or a minor god, like Hypnos or Eros. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

Grover sounded like he was worrying about it.

It was Friday night. Time for capture the flag. 

Annabeth and some of her siblings carried a gray banner of an owl above an olive tree. The Ares kids had a red banner with a spear and a boar’s head. 

I heard Percy ask Luke, “Those are the flags?”

“Yeah.”

“Ares and Athena always lead the teams?”

“Not always,” Luke said. “But often.”

“So if another cabin gets one, what do you do- repaint the flag?”

Luke grinned. “You’ll see. First we have to get one.”

“Whose side are we on?” I asked.

He smirked at me. He was a lot more intimidating in the dark. “We’ve made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you two are gonna help.”

Luke explained the teams to us, Athena with Hermes and Apollo, and Ares with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. I wished I had paid more attention to the people around camp, then I could know who to watch out for. That’s what I get for being stuck in my own head all the time.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the floor and explained the rules. I forced myself not to zone out.

When he was done, everyone started to get weapons and armor from the armory. Helmets, bronze swords, spears, big shields I couldn’t lift without a huge adrenaline rush. 

“Whoa,” Percy said. “We’re really supposed to use this stuff?”

Luke answered, “Unless you wanna get skewered by our friends in cabin five. Here- Chiron picked out some stuff for the two of you. You’re both on border patrol. I wanted you guys up front with me, get you some real experience, but Annabeth has a different plan for you two.” 

Luke handed Percy a huge shield and a sword, and me a chestplate and a different sword that I knew would feel awkward in my hand.

Annabeth yelled, “Blue team, forward!”

We cheered and shook our swords and marched to the south woods. The red team marched north and trash talked us until they were out of sight.

Percy looked at me and said, “Be right back,” before he jogged up to Annabeth’s position at the front. 

I snorted. 

“So much for sibling loyalty, right?” Luke asked.

I jumped a little. I’d kind of forgotten he was right next to me. “Eh, it’s alright. He’s allowed to make other friends.”

He smiled at me, like he thought I was lying just to save face. “Sure. Anyway, don’t worry about being border patrol. It’s a boring job, you and Percy will probably just talk to each other the whole time. Next Friday, after some more sword practice, you and me are going to take the Ares cabin down a few pegs.”

I smiled at him. Luke was a cool guy, and it was sweet of him to take the quiet kid under his wing. Even if it did mean I would be tortured under the guise of sword practise more often. “Sounds like a plan, dude.”

When I met up with Percy again, he was pouting. He showed me where we were stationed and then proceeded to grumble to himself. I didn’t know if it was about being put out of the way or if Annabeth said something insulting to him. Probably both. 

Border patrol meant we guarded the creek to keep anyone from the red team off of our side. The conch horn sounded, and an Apollo kid ran from our side into the trees of enemy territory. 

Then there was a sound nearby that made my skin crawl. A growl. Coming from close by. 

Suddenly, it stopped. I figured it must’ve been one of the monsters that were supposed to be in the forest. 

I thought about going to investigate it when I heard a voice scream, “Cream them!”

I turned back to the other side of the creek, where five Ares warriors were rushing at me and Percy. 

The chick that had yelled and one of her brothers went after Percy, while three huge guys charged towards me. It wasn’t much of a fight, to be honest. One of the guys immediately knocked my sword out of my hands, and then I was pushed onto the ground. I was scared they were gonna kick me in the ribs, but they were already laughing. 

“Give him a haircut,” I heard the lone girl say. “Grab his hair.”

I looked over and Percy was on the ground too. Looks like the Jackson twins were really kicking butt today. 

I scooched back quickly, very aware of the three older and bigger guys still circling me. I grabbed my sword and got back up, but I didn’t think I made an intimidating picture, considering that drove them into another bout of laughter.

I kept backing up. I could hear Percy talking to the girl, but I wasn’t processing what he was saying. I looked behind me and saw I was almost at the creek. A thought shot through me, a desperate theory. If my dad was Poseidon, and all evidence was pointing to the fact that he was, then maybe the water could help me somehow. I had to try something. 

Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the water, hearing a splash from about ten feet away. Percy had gotten pushed in. I felt myself perk up, my senses opening like they did when I was fighting Luke that first time. The three Ares kids had started to follow me into the water, but I met them halfway. I wasn’t so scared of them anymore.

I managed to swing one of their swords out of his hands, and he retreated to go grab it from where it had been thrown up the creek. I swung the back of my sword at another guy’s helmet, and he went down like a ragdoll. The final guy seemed more competent than his brothers. He raised his sword to meet mine and we started fighting in earnest. 

Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke race into the creek with the red team’s flag in his hands. He was flanked by his brothers, fighting off some other kids from the red team. 

The guy I was fighting cursed, and turned to try and intercept them, but it was no use. Luke raced into friendly territory, and the blue team started to cheer. The red banner turned to silver with a caduceus on it. The guys on the blue team picked Luke up and carried him on their shoulders, and I cheered and rushed over to join the cheering masses. 

The game was over. My team won. 

I noticed Percy wasn’t with me, and turned to see him arguing with Annabeth. Then, he stepped out of the lake, and immediately fell into her arms. I rushed over to them.

“Woah, bro, you alright?” I said, taking Percy out of her arms. 

Before he could answer, Annabeth cursed “Oh, Styx. This is not good. I could’ve sworn it would be Zeus…”

I looked up from steadying Percy, and saw her face. She didn’t look like the confident and intimidating Annabeth anymore. She looked pale.

I saw Percy open his mouth to question her, but then I heard the growl from earlier come back. It was much closer this time. A howl ripped through the forest. 

Nobody was cheering anymore. I heard Chiron shout, “Stand ready! My bow!”

Annabeth drew her dagger. 

On the rocks above us, there was a black dog the size of a rhino. Its eyes were bright red. 

It was looking right at me and Percy. 

Annabeth yelled, “Run!”

I only had enough time to push Percy to the side before it was on me. I heard the crunch of it biting through my armor and into my shoulder as I stumbled backwards from the force of the hit. There was the sound of arrows being let go, and the monster fell at my feet, dead. 

Somehow, I was still alive. The pain hadn’t set in yet. I didn’t want to look down and see crimson stained armor. If that thing had been on me any longer it would’ve bitten through my jugular and I would be dead. 

Annabeth was in front of me, suddenly, and she was pulling me towards the creek. Seems like we’d both figured out my parentage. 

As she was guiding me to the water, she muttered, “Di immortales! That was a hellhound. How on earth did it get into camp? It doesn’t make any sense…”

Chiron, Luke, and Percy were in front of me too, now, and I heard the same Ares girl yell, “It’s all Percy’s fault! He must’ve summoned it!”

Annabeth was still talking to me. “Just get in the water, Attie. You’ll be fine once you get in the water.”

I finally stepped into the creek, with the whole camp surrounding me. 

I felt better instantly. I could feel my wounds closing up. Some campers gasped. But they weren’t looking at my wounds. They were looking above mine and Percy’s heads. 

I followed their eyes, and saw a hologram of green light. A trident.

“Your father,” Annabeth mumbled. “This is really not good.”

“It is determined,” Chiron announced.

All around me, campers started kneeling. 

“Our father?” Percy asked.

“Poseidon,” said Chiron. “Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus and Atalanta Jackson, Children of the Sea God.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! First fanfic ever written! I'm going to do some massive cannon divergence the more into the books we get, so if that's not your thing I'm telling you now. If I get to Heroes of Olympus that will be changed even more. Just to let you know Attie won't be going on this quest, but in return she'll go on the quest in Titan's Curse instead of Percy. Also, Luke is my favorite character in PJO so Attie is going to interact with him a lot cause this whole story is shamelessly indulgent for me. Thanks for reading!


End file.
